St. Mary's Lake on a nice December day

The temperature was around 42 degrees when I put the pelican in the water around 11:30. I was targetting pickerel, but would take whatever wanted to put a bend in my pole. I brought 2 batteries since I knew I might be doing a bit of trolling until I could locate some fish. It was clear sunny skies when I started.

After launching I headed to the right of the boat ramp. I fished the end of the first peninsula and the standing timber with no luck. I started trolling across the face of the dam then headed up lake past the long cove. That's where I caught the crappie. Not great sized but a fish none the less. I would occasionally catch grass on the treble hooks. I was pulling 2 lures thru the water with the 1 I thought ran deeper on the outside.

By the time I was almost directly across from the boat ramp I caught the bass.

It was just after 1:30. The bass was so pale it almost looked like another species of fish. I was trying different lures on and off. I just couldn't find anything that would consistently catch fish. I headed up to the skinny part of the lake. I tried casting up there. Twice when my lure landed I spooked something in the water as it would ripple the water as the lure hit the water. I didn't catch anything up there either.

I trolled past the next bank heading towards the standing timber where I caught a few fish 2 weeks ago. I know that Andy, Chuck & Brian had caught fish there also. I even tied on a small crappie lure and tried jigging it in the timber without success. By now the sky was heavily overcast. Andy showed up. I don't know if he had any luck, but he was moving around a lot.

I made my way over to the boat ramp. 2 fish in almost 5 hours worth of fishing. Not the best day on the water but I'll take it for a December day. Most years I'm done with freshwater fishing in MD by this time of the year, but I have quite a bit of time on my hands now not working full time. I need to become a better coldweather angler. I ended up losing 2 lures, which is unusual when fishing from a boat. Most times I just go opposite the snag and it comes out, but not today. I did hang up quite a bit trolling so hopefully that means I was close to the bottom most of the time.

Here are the lures I tried.

I found some more exposed manmade structures at the headwaters of the lake.

St. Mary's Lake Grand Slam 11/17/08

Sunset - Tramonte

Pickerel - Luccetto

Put the kayak in around 1pm. Very overcast and around 52 degrees air temperature. Slight wind but nothing unmanageable. Used a rapala count down in shad, a mepps spinner, chartruese crankbait and a rapala jointed minnow. Caught all my fish in the standing timber. Ended up with 7 fish a bluegill, pickerel, 2 crappie and 3 bass. The biggest bass and the pickerel were my largest out of the lake this year. Better late than never I guess. 2 other people fishing and both were outcatching me.

The pickerel was strong enough to pull the kayak around a bit. Know as a 'Sleigh ride', it's been a while since I've caught a freshwater fish in the kayak that was able to give me a ride.

Ho usato il kayak. Preso 7 pesci. Bluegill, luccetto, crappie & bass. Il bass & luccetto erano i piu grandi che ho preso del quel lago quest anno. Nouvoloso col poco sole. Usavo il rapala countdown e un crankbait colore chartreuse. Mepps = cappotto.

Saluti tutti i soci del pescaOK.

Alaska Fish species

Dolly Varden from Jerome lake
Kasilof river red salmon


Fairbanks Northern Pike

Chena river grayling
Homer Irish Lord

Smoking Salmon

Catch a bunch of nice, fresh, chrome-bright salmon. Like this beautiful Kenai river silver salmon.

Or this stringer of pink salmon.Work in a bug free area. Process all fish. Filet then portion into serving size pieces.


Brine and marinate. Keep fish well chilled during the entire process.

Once fish have marinated the desired time, place on smoking racks to allow to air dry. Make sure you have room between each piece of fish. If using wood chunks, soak wood in water before placing in smoker.

Portable boats

It's time to restart the blog.

So for this topic I'll post about some of the boats I use for fishing.

Pelican Predator DLX

Features
Modified "V" double hull
Two padded, folding and swiveling seats with side trays
Battery compartment
Built-in motor mounts, bow/stern
Bow 12 V electrical outlets
Stern 12 V electrical outlets
One swivel rod holder
Two vertical rod holders
Two horizontal rod holders

Old Town Guide 16 foot canoe

The Old Town® Guide 160 is designed for the outdoorsperson looking for a canoe stable enough for fishing or nature watching, yet versatile enough for family excursions. Please Note: It is your responsibility to check state laws and regulations to obtain registration on your boat. You will receive the Manufacturerýs Statement of Origin (MSO) two to three weeks after product delivery.Features
Polylink3™ material
Length: 16 ft
Width: 39.5 in
Depth: 13.5 in
Weight: 82 lbs
Capacity: 950 lbs

Rush Kayak

Stable and easily maneuverable, the lightweight Rush Kayak from Old Town® Canoe has a roomy cockpit perfect for enjoying a few hours out on the water. The Rush comes with a removable workdeck and an Ergo-X high-back padded seat for all-day paddling comfort. Features
Removable work deck with mesh pockets
Lightweight, easy-carry construction
Adjustable high-back folding seat with cup holder
Roomy cockpit for easy entry/exit
Front and back rear deck bungees

Crampton Gap Shelter Pictures

Appalachian Trail Adventures Part V

When I woke from my night at the Rocky, I was eager to get back on the trail. Sometime before falling to sleep I decided that I would start to hike back to Harpers Ferry the next morning. I still had a lot of things to take care of for my upcoming road trip. I was due to leave in less than a week and I was constantly going over my 'to-do' list in my head. Each day that I hiked north meant a total of 2 more days on the trail.

The previous evening I had told Jim that I was going north a few more days. After getting my gear ready I was out of the shelter and heading back on the trail. Jim went down to get some water and he was traveling in the opposite direction that I was going. He must have cut through the woods because I ran into him a few minutes later. I was traveling south and he asks me if I was traveling in the right direction since I had said I wanted to go north. I told him I had a change of plans and wanted to hike to the Crampton Gap shelter and spend the rest of the day camping. At that point Jim decided that would be a good idea, so for the first time I would have a hiking partner.

Since Jim spends so much time on the trail, he was able to show me a few shortcuts that end up in the same places we wanted, just showing a slightly different terrain. We went up a road that ended up at a few towers and what looked like a small military outpost way up on the mountain. Jim also knows different landmarks and can estimate hiking times from those landmarks. 1 of the landmarks that Jim pointed out was a memorial marker to a young man who had died in an accident. He was involved in doing trail maintenance. His family thought it would be good as a memorial to raise money and purchased a 4 acre section of land that is now used for the trail.

We finally ended up at Crampton Gap shelter. While the shelter is older, built by the CCC in the 1940’s, it very scenic location with a spring that runs through the campsite. There is a boardwalk that leads over to the privy. While walking on the boardwalk, you can hear a spring that runs under the rocks. I spotted a small break in the rocks where you can see some water bubbling up through the ground. As nice the Garvey shelter structure was, this site had it beat for camping beauty. So we camped. We fetched wood and built a fire. We hung out and cooked our meals and soaked in the sun.

Later 2 brothers from PA joined us. Both go to Brigham Young University and both are studying to be mechanical engineers. We thought they were twins, but weren’t. And 1 or both of them snored.

Appalachian Trail Adventures Part IV

The trip to Rocky Run shelter was uneventful. Uneventful that is if you don’t count making sure I didn’t step in any of the puddles left on the trail. Most of the time I was able to navigate my way via the rocks jutting out of the trail. Stepping on the knife edge of the rocks sure is tough on your insteps. Seeing how I didn’t leave the Garvey shelter until 2pm, I assumed that I could make it to the Rocky Run shelter before sundown, even though the wet trail had me hiking slower than normal.

All seemed well and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the turnoff for the shelter. I referred to my map often as I got closer. If I missed the turnoff for the shelter I would be dark before I ran into the next one. Night hiking isn’t the best idea, as hiking in daylight poses enough challenges. As I near the turnoff for the shelter I see the sign and I see a note left by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.

My heart sank as I read the note that the shelter was under renovations, but perked up when I saw a hand-written note that said the shelter was 90% complete and livable. Here’s a picture of the shelter and you be the judge.

A fellow hiker staying at the shelter came out the approach trail to greet me and reassure me that the shelter was Ok to stay at. There were already 3 other people there for the night when I got there and I’m sure they weren’t thrilled to see me. They had most of their gear spread out all over the shelter drying. So after some maneuvering I had a spot to put my sleeping bag in the middle of the shelter. Some of the boards were quite saggy and wouldn’t support my weight. Don’t ask me how I know this.

By the time I cooked my dinner of Lipton’s cheddar broccoli rice, it was getting dark. The 2 college aged thru hikers went to bed around 7:30. We chatted before they turned in while I was cooking. They said that there were 2 dozen thru hikers ahead of them on the trail according to the thru hikers sign in register at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC).

The other hiker, the one who came out to meet me, was Jim from Baltimore. Jim is 60 years old and a retired Marine. For the last 7 years has been spending around 8 months on the trail. So basically you can say that Jim ‘lives’ on the trail. Jim figures that he’s racked up around 5,000 miles of hiking the trail, but I think that number would be conservative. 1 other thing I noticed about Jim is that for a slim person he sure seems to eat a lot. Jim spent 2 nights at the shelter waiting out the rain and having some of his things dry.

After cleaning up my dinner mess, it was time to turn in for the night. It was predicted to be somewhat cold at night. Jim has some sort of weather gadget that he can tune into weather reports while on the trail. I slept well for the most part. Someone kept getting up at night. I counted at least 5 different times that someone got up. I slept with foam ear plugs to drown out any snoring and other noises, but people use lights when they get up in the dark.

A tight squeeze
Creek

Appalachian Trail Adventures Part III

Earlier I mentioned that I met a lot of 'Characters' on the trail. Upon arriving at the Garvey shelter I met another hiker named Dee. It seems that she had a few recent setbacks in her life. She felt overwhelmed at home and work so she thought a few days on the trail would help out. So she asked for some time off of work. When they told he no, she quit her job.

Later on I started to prepare my dinner of orzo, dehydrated cheddar cheese, onions, peas and chicken. A sort of 1 pot casserole. I asked Dee what she was having for dinner. Her reply was that she wasn't going to eat and hadn't eaten in 5 days. She then starts to mention how she didn't bring any food except for some grape juice and beef bouillion cubes. Her goal was to fast for 40 days. She thought it would be easier to accomplish this by being out on the trail, away from temptations. Her reasons for the fast were both spiritual and to detoxify her body. I was hungry and was looking forward to eating my dinner, even though I didn't manage to finish all of it.

Cooking dinner on the AT

Seeing how hiker's midnight is right around sundown, I ended up going to bed sometime around 8pm. I set my hammock up on the 2nd floor of the shelter. I added in my mattress pad, zero degree sleeping bag and silk bag liner to make me a nice little cocoon for the night. Right after dinner the rain started to fall. It rained all through the night.

When I woke up on Monday morning it was still raining. I didn't have a weather forecast so I didn't know how much longer it would last. I heard that the Harpers Ferry area got quite a bit of rain on Saturday. When I got home and check the local weather, it showed that Harper's Ferry received almost 1 inch of rain on Monday. I repacked my backpack and tried to arrange everything in some sort of logical order. The pack only has 5 compartments, with 2 of those being side pockets that aren't very deep. I brought an excess of ziplock bags and put similar types of gear together. I tried waiting out the rain, then it looked like I may have to spend another day in the same place at the rate it was falling. In the mean time I read all the register entries that other hikers had left. My favorite was the group of hikers that had 1 car in Harpers Ferry and another car at the MD/PA border for when they were finished. They get in the second car and drive down to their starting point. It saves them having to hike back from where they initally left. It seems that the keys for car #2 were locked in car #1. So they were planning on heading back to retrieve the keys. Ouch.

Around 2pm I was getting a little bored and anxious to get back out. I put on my pack cover and raingear and started hiking north. I didn't see another hiker all day. I had to watch where I put my feet since most of the rainwater didn't soak all the way thru. The trail was quite wet and in someplaces underwater. I went thru Gathland state park. There is a memorial to Civil War correspondents there. That was the only time my feet got wet was when I had to hike thru a field with tall grass. When I got to the trail that led to the Crampton Gap shelter I decided to continue hiking north. I didn't see any point in stopping when I got a late start and I still had quite a bit of daylight left. I was going to push on to the Rocky Run shelter, which was the next shelter in succession. Shelter sites usually have a water source and a privy or outhouse. And if it was going to rain again it would be better to be in a roomy shelter instead of my cramped tent.

What the trail looked like on Monday afternoon
Gathland state park memorial
Gathland park building
Not everything on the trail is green

Appalachian Trail assorted pictures

Back of Garvey shelter with ladder to 2nd story
Cliffs view
Looking south
Virginia hills
Rock outcrop on trail
2nd floor viewed from 1st

Garvey shelter
Potomac river
Don't wake him up